My name is Brandy Cupcakes, and, I like to make things. And buy things made by other people too.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Miss TEA

I just finished this piece today, after having started it last semester. Sometimes I gotta let things fester a bit before I decide what to do about them.

The base of this piece is Egyptian cotton with a plastic tea label stitched to it. I peeled the label off the glass jar the tea came in, in one long spiral and couldn't bear to throw it away, so I stitched it onto this fabric.

And then it sat and sat and sat, because I knew it wasn't finished, but I just didn't know what the heck to do with it.

Until today, when inspiration hit and this neon little lady was conceived and birthed.

She's a bit abstract.

And I love the juxtaposition of the shiny, plastic label and the brightly colored, but flat cotton floss against the expensive Egyptian cotton(which is from my husband's old stash of quilting fabrics).

She is a portrait, but a portrait that reflects feelings rather than physical reality.

I let the ends of the hair and neck strands hang loose, and a couple of them are quite long, though you can't really tell from my photos. I just didn't have a good place to hang it up and snap a picture. I did this to symbolize dragging of the feet, breaking of the rules and existing outside the perimeters that the world establishes for us.

This piece, like many pieces of small size, is difficult to appreciate from a distance of more than a couple feet away from it. It is a blur from across the room, but as you draw closer, the details begin to emerge, and what may at first seem primitive and simple, reveals itself to have a louder voice than what many would believe a gaudy piece of trash should have.

The inner physiatrist in me says maybe that's the story of most of my pieces.